Manu’s minutes: How much is too much?

The perennial question for the aging San Antonio Spurs has been how to manage the minutes of the “Big Three” while pushing for playoff seeding and home-court advantage down the stretch. Manu Ginobili in particular has been known to show signs of wear-and-tear in the playoffs as well as being somewhat injury-prone late in the year. No one plays harder than Manu on the court, so does coach Gregg Popovich make his team vulnerable to late season trouble by pushing Manu this early in the year? The Spurs are off the the best start in franchise history and, while it is still early in the season, it’s worth examining.

Manu is playing more minutes so far this season than he has in his career with the Spurs. Prior to this season, the most minutes Manu has played per game was 31:06 in 2007-2008. At 32:00 minutes this season, how will a change in playing time affect Manu down the stretch?